What did you think of the site? E-mail haveago@dancingwiththegatekeepers.com

Saturday, 28 January 2017

DUN-DUN-DUUUUNNNN!!!

I am still on a “Mission to Explain,” but what I had in mind
requires more reading in order to explain correctly, and we must now also contend
with the new term “alternative facts,” coined in the last week, i.e. facts that
counter the facts most unhelpful to your own cause. Instead, I have a very
important piece of information, discovered in the last couple of days, that made
the world a little better for having discovered it.

The extremely well-known sound effect, “DUN-DUN-DUUUUNNNN!!!,”
used as the most over-the-top reaction to, well, anything, not only has an
actual name, but a composer as well.

Its correct name is “Shock Horror (a),” credited to Dick
Walter (whose website is at www.dickwalter.co.uk), and comes from the “Classic
Comedy” album produced by “library music” company KPM, now known as EMI
Production Music, a division of Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the original reaction to this is,
“who cares,” but, to me, knowing that the ubiquitous “DUN-DUN-DUUUUNNNN!!!” was
actually written by someone makes it that bit funnier.

“Shock Horror (a)” – there is a “Shock Horror (b),” where
the notes of music descend, instead of increasing with tension – is so
ubiquitous a piece of music, I had it filed away in my mind alongside the “shave
and a haircut” coda I previously discussed here, but it then becomes too easy
to think “Shock Horror (a)” had also existed since the dawn of time, evolving
from a basic human need to have the most over-the-top reaction available, on
standby, should the need arise – knowing such a need is certain to arise is a
discussion in itself. Only then do you remember it is a recording of an
orchestra, meaning it had to have been made by someone, something that can be
too easily be taken for granted.

This is where the existence of “library music,” and British companies
like KPM, Bruton and DeWolfe, comes in – pieces of music that have been written
in anticipation of a need yet to be determined. An example of their use is by the
TV show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” which, along with the first two Python
films, relied upon the DeWolfe library for almost all the music you heard,
finding music to fit their sketches.

This situation throws up some interesting cases. “Best
Endeavours,” written as a corporate-sounding piece by Alan Hawkshaw, is best
known as the theme for “Channel 4 News,” but was also used by the 7 Network in
Australia for their main evening news, and even in the Clint Eastwood film “Pale
Rider.” Another Hawskhaw piece, “Chicken Man,” was used by the BBC as the theme
for children’s drama “Grange Hill,” while being used by ITV, at the same time,
for the game show “Give Us a Clue.”

From personal experience, listening to library music is like
falling down a rabbit hole, going from one piece to the next, imagining what
you could do with them. It’s worth a go, if you are looking for some new
sounds.